A battery mounted on an electric vehicle or a hybrid vehicle, for example, is mounted with a service plug for interrupting electrical conduction between a power supplying portion in the battery and a loading portion composed of an electrical system in the vehicle. This service plug is a connector for ensuring working safety during maintenance of the electrical system in the vehicle. The service plug includes a cap connector connected to the power supplying portion side and a plug connector so mated with the cap connector as to be capable of being unmated therefrom. In the maintenance work for the vehicle, the plug connector is detached from the cap connector. Thereby, power feeding to the electrical system in the vehicle is interrupted, so that the safety of an operator is ensured.
The cap connector has a pair of terminals and an interlock connector. Each of the pair of terminals is fixed to each of ends of two conducting wires through which a high current flows. The terminals are short-circuited to each other, and such a high current as 100 A, for example, flows through these two conducting wires. In addition, the interlock connector retains one ends of two signal lines. The interlock connector controls on/off switching of a high current flowing through the terminals. When the two signal lines retained by this interlock connector are short-circuited, a high current flows through the terminals; when the short circuit of the two signal lines is removed, the high current flowing through the terminals is interrupted.
Upon being mated with the cap connector, the plug connector short-circuits the pair of terminals of the cap connector and also short-circuits the two signal lines. Such a service plug, for example, is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-343169A. In order to be unmated from the cap connector, the plug connector constituting the above service plug is required to, first of all, remove the short circuit of the two signal lines to reliably interrupt the current flowing the terminals, and then remove the short circuit of the terminals. In this regard, a period of time equal to or longer than a certain period of time is required until the current flowing through the terminals is reliably interrupted after the short circuit of the signal lines is removed. Therefore, in order to be detached from the cap connector, the plug connector is required to have a structure for reliably ensuring the above period of time equal to or longer than the certain period of time has taken place before the short circuit of the terminals is removed after the short circuit of the signal lines is removed.
In the service plug disclosed in JP 2002-343169A, the above period of time equal to or longer than the certain period of time is intended to be ensured by a lifting operation and a sliding operation of a lever. However, the lifting operation and the sliding operation of the lever can be continuously performed, so that it is difficult to reliably ensure that the above period of time equal to or longer than the certain period of time has taken place, and current flowing through the terminals is not reliably interrupted.